The recent special election for Proposition 50 is the first election I was legally allowed to vote in. I struggled to find information on both and what the proposed redistricting plan will do.

Commercials were skewed greatly towards one side or the other, saying their side would “save democracy” and that the other would hurt it — but neither provided any real information so that I could decide for myself.

I learned Prop. 50 would redraw the congressional district lines of California, but I still struggled to understand the implications that came with that.

We deserve the chance to hear the evidence and form opinions for ourselves, without dealing with such intense bias while searching for information.

A 2016 study by the Stanford Graduate School of Education “shows a dismaying inability by students to reason about information they see on the internet.”

Not only do students have a hard time distinguishing opinion from fact in today’s digital age, but they also feel journalists working for big companies are not to be trusted.

According to a 2024 report by the News Literacy Project, “More than two-thirds of teens surveyed — 69% — said they believe “news organizations intentionally add bias to their coverage and only present the facts that support their own perspective.”  This has much to do with the algorithms that track what we do online and feed us more of the same, so we keep using the apps.

Even my academic research has faced these issues. While researching whether hate speech should be a crime for a class essay was that articles were trying to prove their opinion, and disprove the opposing one, which made it very difficult for me to decide for myself.

The same issue as with Prop 50, the information provided was too emotional and skewed. If every article bashes the opposing views, how can I or anyone else truly decide what we believe?

The constant flow of information on all our screens, we each need to be able to form our own opinions and find the facts. People shouldn’t vote for a certain side just because someone they trust tells them to. They should be able to find the truth and decide for themselves.

As it gets harder to tell what is real and what is fake, it will be more important for people to be able to trust certain sources. We need to make it easier for everyone to think for themselves.